Top 10 Questions to Ask your Recruiter

There are many, many questions you need to ask, to find a good financial services recruiter. Ask them the hard questions. After all, these are the people who are going to find the individuals who will drive your organisation forward. Would you give that task to just anyone? Ask them:

1. Will you personally run the campaign? Or will you play SWITCH?

Often senior sales people are sent in to reel you in, and then the actual job is passed onto a junior member of staff.

You must meet the person who will be handling your assignment. The destiny of your organisation depends on this person. This person determines the fate of your search. The tone of their voice, choice of words, and level of commitment will all affect the quality of candidates you receive.

You don’t want to be wooed by the best front man, only to be left with a blue-eyed two-dimensional MBA to pick up the pieces of your search. Don’t allow a switch to take place (slick front man to wet behind the ears MBA).

2. How long have you been in the trenches (i.e. how long have they been consulting?)

Executive recruitment might seem easy, but it isn’t. It takes a long time to learn well. It is fundamentally simple to describe its processes, and seems easy because so much is 'common sense'. But high level skills take time to develop: through practical experience of the hundreds of issues that can come up, and focused training. Turnover in the industry is very high, with many only staying in finance recruiting for less than a year. Make sure your recruiter is not one of these who has less than twelve months of experience, otherwise you may be paying for it dearly later.

3. What is your industry experience?

You need someone who regularly recruits in your field. The alternative is that they learn about it at your expense. Are they knowledgeable on market trends and remuneration advice? Up to speed on the technical aspects of your field? Ask which organisations and positions are the most likely sources for your particular need. Ask to see whom they have on file prior to beginning work on the Search, and the type of information they hold on them. Ask who their contacts are in your particular industry sector - good contacts provide two critical aspects - informal reference checks and opinions. Ask them to discuss the main strategic issues affecting your business and industry sector, and to give you an overview of the main competitors.

The best way by far to effectively assess expertise is to arrange to meet at short notice and address the questions above. It may seem tough - but you will be able to establish if they are starting with a broad base of understanding and information. Why would you want to waste your time training them, and add more risk into your recruitment?!

Ask them to be clear about what similar roles they have hired for, if they have experience in this area and who for. Also, when they most recently hired in this area? You need to be assured that they have current knowledge. Ask them if they can show you a list of people doing similar roles - this one really sorts them out! Especially if you don't give them much notice. However, you cannot expect to keep the list…!

4. What salary range is right for this position?

This is a very powerful indicator of whether they know what is going on 'out there', in your field. Knowing the salary range will also help you define the type of person you are seeking more clearly.

5. Where will they look for the highest quality candidates?

Ask the financial services recruiter what sort of organisations they will look in for your prime candidates. This question will further demonstrate the consultant's knowledge of your sector and is critical to the process.

6. Can they give you references?

Warning bells should ring loud and clear if you get fobbed off on this question. It is a real danger sign. You need to check all references carefully.

7. Do you supply us with a job specification?

And what format will it take? This is a really important step. If the spec is written incorrectly you can easily assess at the start of the process if the executive recruiter has the right type of candidate in mind. If the executive recruiter has it wrong, they need to know up front so they can fix it and not waste your time or theirs. Taking this step will ensure that your consultant fully understands what you are seeking - so get it in writing.

8. Will you receive the “Long List” of search applicants?

A 'Long List' normally contains the names of over 80% of the people working in that sector. If you are paying more than 22% of total annual package in fees for a search, you should receive a comprehensive Long List and the consultant should discuss the contents with you. An industry specialist will take less than two weeks to meet with you and present it, so find out how long your financial services recruiter thinks it will take them.

9. How do you add value to the Search process?

Value adding is an important aspect of any service today. How does your executive recruitment firm add value to your business? For example: Is advice available on a range of related issues such as remuneration, succession planning, gender balance, etc? Are they willing to recruit in all areas of your organisation - or only at the top?

As the client, you will be investing a lot of time and money in developing the relationship. What are you getting as add-ons to this? Do you have a choice of Executive Search or advertising, with advice given on what is most appropriate? How is your recruiter REALLY helping you and offering more than their competitors?

10. Will you receive the applicant’s original resume?

This is critical. Many consultants will retype the resumes before they hand them to you. Why do they do this? To standardise the resume and put it on the executive recruiter's letterhead - it's branding for their company after all.

If they are going to retype you must insist they give you the original resume also. The original will give you useful information such as how the applicant writes, how they present on paper, and perhaps some important negative information about them (you will find that the recruiter's standardisation sometimes loses negatives!).

Finance recruiters who do retype resumes argue that they standardise so it is easier to compare people. The more valid counter argument is that people are very different and a short list can be quite diverse, so you need to see how they present themselves. The original resume is vital to the process.

Why Hire Recruiters?

Executive recruiters can be a good option, in certain circumstances, but there are pitfalls to the process. When should you use a finance recruitment consultant and why? The services of a financial services recruiter are expensive and you want value. The main goal of this article? To ensure value is exactly what you get.

So, why use an executive recruiter at all? Why not just do the leg work yourself?

There are a number of different occasions when using a recruiter is the optimal decision to make. In fact, there are six different instances when this is the best move:

1. You are too busy and don’t have time to recruit.

2. You had a poor response from adverts that you placed and you want to stop “flogging a dead horse” and try a new approach.

3. You are inexperienced / there is no HR department, or they are too busy to help.

4. The role you’re hiring for is rather unique or a one-off for your company and you are not sure how to approach the executive recruitment task.

5. The position you’re hiring for is a role you recruit for often, e.g. call centre staff, junior sales staff. In this instance, a consultant could help you develop a framework for hiring, to save yourself time and money the next time around.

6. The finance recruiter can give you competitive information as they are talking with people in your marketplace every single day.

Reasons four, five and six detailed above all provide you the opportunity to transfer skills from the executive recruitment to you, so that you have more knowledge and understanding for the next time around.

When you’re using an executive recruiter, you shouldn’t simply be expecting them to present you with resumes. Executive recruiters should help you to reduce your risk. This is where executive recruiters should really add value. If they’re doing their job right they should be assessing whether a person would be a good fit for your organisation or not, both in terms of skills and culture.

How can executive recruiters REALLY help you fill your staffing needs?

An executive recruiter who is doing their job correctly will be doing two things for you:

1. Helping you to define your needs effectively

2. Providing an objective assessment of applicants (this is only really possible though if they are not on commission, but unfortunately most are).

Adding value no. 1: Helping you to define your needs

Your executive recruiter should help you to thoroughly define your needs while adding the bonus of their knowledge of the external marketplace. They should be assessing three main areas:

i) The scope of the role – and how it can positively and negatively influence your organisation;

ii) What you are trying to achieve with your new hire;

iii) The profile of the applicants currently in the marketplace – do candidates with your specific needs actually exist, how much are they worth, will they want to move to your organisation, and where do they work right now.

Adding value no. 2: Providing an objective assessment of candidates

This really is a challenge. If you’re paying commission, how can you be sure that your consultant is not just trying to sell you someone rather than give you objective, reliable opinions and information?

In the end, it all comes down to trust. But you can help yourself, by assessing your executive recruiter effectively in the first place, and finding someone you really can trust to do the job for you.

Ask yourself:

· What is your desired executive recruiter’s experience, maturity and industry knowledge? Don’t kid yourself – all three are critical.

· Is your executive recruiter planning to see all the candidates regardless of where they came from? If internal applicants and those from other sources are not reviewed jointly then they are not assessing and advising on all the alternatives and they are restricting their ability to provide you with an objective service.

· Are they under pressure to sell their applicants due to their fee structure?

It goes without saying that you should also feel comfortable that they are searching the market in a thorough manner for you.